Armored Core for Answer (Xbox 360, 2008)

Definitely a big improvement on AC4 but the environments still look awful.

Huge enemies and arms forts add a new dimension to the game where you have to pick them apart. Some of them, like the Answerer, look amazing.

Enemies are pretty stupid except for the enemy NEXTs which can sometimes be ridiculously difficult. A balance would have been nice.

Levels are still pretty lame like AC4. Half of them drop you into an arena to kill 1 or two other enemies. Some have you turbo boosting through enemy fire to smack at a single spot to win the level. Still lots of really vertical levels which stinks since looking up and looking down tall shafts give you a lousy view of anything that might be there.

Weapons balancing stinks again. You'll find one or two setups (Ammo quantity versus power. Armor versus speed) for your NEXT and all the other parts in the game will be pointless (experimenting is ok but usually doesn't result in anything helpful). Fine tuning your AC doesn't seem to do anything and having a dozen different boosters for your shoulders and stabilizers seems excessive. Unless you're a super die hard mechanics junkie who's willing to blow hours just fine tuning your NEXT, it all feels like extra stuff that you won't ever use.

Online is dead. I was able to find a couple of Japanese players and they were too hardcore, wasting me pretty much right off the bat after I had been playing the game for a few weeks.

At least there's plenty to unlock but after you beat the same a second time, everything in the store is given to you so there's no real replayability unless you're going to experiment in the same small and fast levels or try the schematics of NEXTs you've beaten in the arena (also pointless. Vertical Kojima missiles pretty much kill all of them once you get them and the rewards are usually junk you won't use).

It's alright but the visuals stink (except for the NEXTs). Levels have the same design problems as in AC4. The levels jump in difficulty from easy to hard to really easy to ridiculously hard. The Arms Forts are pretty fun (most of em. Others are just big boxes you just have to keep shooting).

I wish these were more like AC2 again. This one is decent but I sold it the second I realized I was grinding for gamerscore which was about 2 weeks since I got it. I think the designers could take a lesson from DW Gundam and just have the NEXT blast huge swarms of enemies and armies.

What can I say? It's Armored core. You pilot robot/mech/tin can. You go from point A, to point B, sometimes to point C, and then you shoot everything that tries to shoot at you. It's a simple formula and people who love the series have no reason to expect it to change. I do however think that since Ubisoft has been making the game the quality has gotten a lot better, and no I'm not just talking about the graphics. The AC's, or Next's as they are called in this game actually move like real walking 30 + foot tall machines.

Mobility has been increased, weapon handling has been increased, it's more realistic because you have to reload ( done automatically ) and you can equip pretty much whatever you want. Graphically it's pretty, but I'm more concerned about the giant speed boat with teeth coming to eat me then the graphic quality of the surrounding buildings. No I'm not joking, have fun with that mission.

Now for the issues. I don't know how it handles on the PS3, but on the 360 the controls can be a bit cumbersome at times. Though this has always been a staple of the series and until we can plug the console into our heads to control our games it will stay that way. Again I don't know how this works on the PS3 but the 360 version needs patches. Unfortunately if you're not an Xbox Live gold member you cannot download and apply these patches. These aren't the normal game updates that are applied automatically these are separate downloads done in game.

The game suffers for this though as without the patches there are a variety of glitches and issues. Sometimes my AC would just stop moving after getting hit by a small rifle, nothing special about it, just a normal rifle. Other times my weapon lock on system would turn into the moving line system used for unguided rockets.

Now this is fine if you use unguided rockets but I'm a beam and missile fan and this became very annoying very fast. It would also do it at random levels, and in random matches in the arena. There was no special weapon fired at me, it would just do this at random. The only other complaint I have is that air combat is quite frantic and sometimes hard to keep up with. My hands don't work quite well due to some minor joint issues and it became hard to keep up in aerial close quarter combat. However keeping at range and using missiles usually solves the problem.

All things considered Ubisoft did a fantastic job for AC4 Answer. The game has its share of bugs and issues, but it could have been much much worse. However if you're just now trying the newer AC games it's advisable to rent before you buy.

I've played the orginal Armored Core and Armored Core Project phantasma and I can tell that I had no deception with Armored Core for Answer. Totaly a great game, nicely balanced, you can play every campaign in co-op. The game rewards you with tons of nice feature (weapon, parts, etc.).

Plus, you can play with up to 8 player online on Xbox Live which enable you to enter into some adrenaline boosted fights.

For those who find the controls clumsy, read the manual, and change the control set to advanced instead of basic control (you cant event strafe using basic control). And finally, try to build a light robot instead of a lead monster, youll see the difference.

For me its a 5/5, always been a fan of Armored Core franchise.

This is the best armored core to date. The game play is TONS more fun! You dont feel like your playing some clunky slow armored machine from some ancient outdated time anymore. The game is fast and fun. The level design is better and lots of details too. Customizing your AC has never been this in depth whatsoever. And the option of online co-op is sweet! The ONLY thing I could ask for is a two player offline co-op but the graphics would definetly have to suffer if they did that. I suggest you buy this game if you liked ANY of the other previous armored core games. If you never played armored core before, start here!

This is a really fun game with a lot of customization options. This is great for those looking for a good mech game, which there are not many of outside of Japan. It is well worth it for the low price it is now.